The invention generally pertains to timing amateur sports games, and more particularly to providing interactive audio announcements of timing information.
While the invention can be used with many games, basketball will often be used as a concrete example.
Pickup games in sports, while fun, lack the sparkle of professional and collegiate games. Two learns keep track of score as in paid attendance games, but the atmosphere and intensity are not the same. There are two elements lacking in informal games that explain the missing luster: timing and realistic sounds.
Time plays an important role in many sports such as basketball, football and hockey. In these games it is not sufficient to accumulate more points than your opponent, but to do so within a specified time period. In close games there is a mad rush to score the winning points before time runs out. Time-outs are called to plan strategy and set up plays. In basketball a shot clock forces the teams to try to score within a short time interval. This element of time, so exciting in professional and collegiate sports, is absent in pick-up games played in streets, driveways, and vacant lots. These games are decided by points with no regard to time. However, timing is important. There is nothing like a time limit to force bold and exciting play.
One of the reasons one never sees timing in pickup games is because a time display large enough to be seen at, say, half-court, would be expensive, large, heavy, and power consuming. A large display would also be delicate unless extremely expensive, and would degrade or break when subjected to the inevitable impacts of a basketball. Furthermore it would lack the easy portability required of any apparatus that could be used in informal games. For pickup games, it would be too inconvenient to carry anything large or heavy.
The other factor that adds to the excitement are the sounds of a gamexe2x80x94voice announcements of time-outs and time remaining; crowd noise; musical flourishes; a horn to signify the end of shot clock time or the end of regulation play; cheering in the last seconds of the game. The sounds of a game are usually related to time events in paid attendance games.
One never hears professional-sounding announcements or horns in pickup games because such sounds would only make sense if they were related to the pace of the game. A gadget that generates specified sounds when designated buttons are pushed would be more of a nuisance than useful because someone, either a player or an observer, would have to push a button each time a certain sound were desired. Such a routine would, quickly prove laborious. Sounds, to be desirable, must be synchronized to the action of the game.
To be accepted, any system that brought new elements into pickup games would have to be very little trouble. Not only would it have to be lightweight, rugged, small, and economical to manufacture, but would also have to be user-friendly. By this is meant it couldn""t require players to be constantly running over to a fixed set of buttons to call time-out or start a shot clock, for example. It must combine the features of timeliness and germane sounds with great ease of use.
It is the purpose of this invention to bring the excitement of time and sound into informal gamesxe2x80x94without requiring the help of bystanders or placing a burden on the players.
It is universally assumed that the best, fairest, and only way to indicate time remaining and other sports timing information in a manner that can be communicated to all players in a game simultaneously is via a large display. Scoreboards, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,045,788 to Castelli et al (1977), often include xe2x80x9cindicatingxe2x80x9d, i.e., displaying timers as an adjunct to the main score display. However, large scoreboard/clocks and large clocks are impractical for informal games. Even personal. timers, like stop watches, rely on visual output. U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,897 to Geiser (1997) provides a hand worn apparatus for swimmers that permits time keeping and stoke counting, and provides feedback to the wearer by numeric and graphic indicators. Personal timekeepers require a player to look away from the game, and do not provide key timing information to other players.
Some prior art exploits buzzing sounds and vibration. U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,727 to Person (1991) teaches a foot-activated training timer that activates a buzzer. It assumes the person conducting the timing is stationary. U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,732 to Jones et al (1987) teaches a sports timing device for referees, officials, and the like that is activated by depressing a primary switch and indicates expiration of time by providing a tactile vibration. This is useful only for short time durations and only alerts the person who carries the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,699 to Sakamoto (1989) teaches a timepiece with audio output, used to indicate time of day or sound an alarm. U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,045 to Lester (1976) describes a watch timepiece with voice output, also for the purpose of announcing the time of day. Neither allows time-outs nor remaining time announcements. These inventions were designed to communicate standard clock time, not for interactive sports timing and broadcast announcements.
Another timing device is the xe2x80x9cTalking Timer 810038xe2x80x9d made by Sper Scientific, LTD of Scottsdale, Ariz. It performs standard timer functions such as counting down, with the additional attribute of audible announcements. This timer and others like it are not suitable for sports because the announcements are not game related and they do not provide a control means for teams to remotely start and stop the timer while playing ball.
It can be seen that prior art timing devices for sports are either large, costly displays or personal devices that alert a single player about a specific timing event. General purpose time pieces are designed to communicate standard clock time and are incompatible with sports timing requirements. General purpose timers do not generate sports-related sounds nor easy interactive control.
To avoid the limitations and problems with present devices, the objects of the invention are to convey key timing information to all players simultaneously by voice announcements and to enable the players to remotely control the start and finish of time-outs and short time intervals such as shot clock time.
By switching sports timing from graphical displays to interactive voice announcements, the present invention produces two substantial and unexpected results. First, the cost drops dramatically as one goes from large expensive displays to a sound system. This makes the sports timing system affordable for amateur players having fun in pickup games. Second, it precludes the need for players to turn their attention from the game to the display when they want to know how much game or shot clock time remain. At frequent intervals they will hear the time remaining and all players will receive the information simultaneously so that a person whose view is blocked will not have a disadvantage.
The present invention obtains the desired sense of timing in informal basketball games by providing a processor to keep track of time remaining, time-outs, shot clock time, and other timing functions; by providing software generated sounds, simulated or pre-recorded, that make voice announcements, crowd noises, horn blares and other acoustic signals, and do so at appropriate moments based on time considerations; and by providing remote control means that enable players to easily call time-outs, start the shot clock and control and activate other timing functions while playing the game.
The present invention significantly improves upon prior art by not only bringing sports timing information and excitement to players in a new and better way, but also bringing the cost of sports timing down to affordable levels for informal games.